Obesity and more particularly morbid obesity, are accepted by the medical profession world-wide as being a proven killer disease.

Generally it can be said that it affects those people who fail to look after their general health. As such it's a disease that's totally preventable - with care and common sense the worst aspects of the problem can be avoided.

However those people who suffer from the medical problems associated with the condition can expect to live 9 years LESS than a person free of the condition.

Obesity was once thought to be a problem confine solely to the affluent west, and though the western nations are still the ones most affected, it's now starting to be seen in countries experiencing a rapid increase in living standards. Children as well as adults are being inflicted with this problem.

What is Obesity and Morbid Obesity?

What is obesity, what causes it, and why is the most virulent form of obesity, morbid obesity, a known killer?

Obesity is a term used for those people who are grossly over weight as defined by the Body Mass Index scale. It means a person who is well in excess of an ideal weight for a person of the same age and height - a weight level that has the potential to progress to morbid obesity and thus cause a number of life threatening conditions.

It's generally accepted that the major causes of over weight and obesity are a poor nutritional diet with an absence of vital foods, and a life without regular exercises.

Morbid obesity is a more pronounced form of obesity characterized by a super-abundance of body fat. It can cause a multitude of health problems many of which can ultimately result in death. Some of these problems are type 2 diabetes, heart ailments, some forms of cancer, sleep apnea, and various mental problems such as depression.

Now a Killer Disease Worldwide

The number of people world-wide suffering from the problem has exploded in the last 20 years with the result that the World Health Organization has been monitoring the situation and looking at how countries are able to cope with ever-increasing health expenses.

Once considered to be a self-inflicted social problem rather than a health problem, obesity and its more troublesome condition is now regarded as a major disease by the medical community. There are more than 300 million persons affected through out the world with over a billion people estimated to be over weight. The problem can rightly be called an obesity epidemic.

Most Western countries are experiencing ever growing numbers of sufferers, some more so than others.

The US leads the way with about 30% of the adult population said to be obese, with the incidence particularly high amongst Afro-Americans and those of Spanish decent. The obesity rate for children is also the worst in the world.

Other countries such as the UK, Australia , Canada and most European countries have rates that are cause for government concern with the number of over weight children in these countries mirroring the upward movement in the US.

At the end of 2006 the World Health Organization in conjunction with European countries set about drawing up plans to counteract the spread of this problem. Certain objectives were set that hopefully will lead to a reduction in the rate of increase of obese people, and eventually a decline.

The medical research companies are playing their part too in helping to combat this problem. One of the most recent discoveries was that of a natural plant product that helps to dispel from the human body fat from a recently eaten meal. This product has been clinically tested and found that 28% of the fat consumed is dispelled by natural means, rather than be stored in the body as fat, and it acts as an appetite suppressant.